Avocado Bee

Thursday, February 12, 2009

That Wedding: 8 Lovely Cakes

Bittersweet Hazelnut
Chocolate Raspberry Rhapsody
Chocolate Truffle
Chocolate Velvet Torte
Chocolate White Chocolate
Lemon Coconut
Lemon Blueberry
Strawberry White Chocolate

I cannot think of anything better than a cake buffet at a wedding.

Go ahead, I dare you, name something better. These divine, magnificent, decadent, delicious cakes all came from Simply Desserts in Fremont, WA.

Tiffany and the hotel did a wonderful job setting up this buffet. The only things provided by us were the cakes and the black chargers (found at Wal Mart for $2 each), and the only directions I gave were to turn milk crates upside down under some linens to give the table some height. Those gorgeous linens, the candles, the candles, and the puffy little plants were all a surprise to me and I loved it all.

I wish they had taken the time to slide the cakes off the cardboard and have them sitting right on the platter, but I figure all of our guests were probably so busy focusing on that decadent looking cake they didn't even notice.

In the middle of the room, across from the cake buffet sat our strawberry white chocolate cutting cake.

I had considered several different topper options, and was close to restoring my grandma's topper from 1959 when That Mother told me she had talked to my aunt and asked if we would be able to borrow The Opera Singer for the evening. Created by artist Susan Lenart Kazmer, the piece is actually a jewelry holder covered in removable and wearable jewelry. The Opera Singer holds four rings, a woven thumb ring, two pairs hoop earrings, three fiber bangle bracelets, a stack of twelve sterling silver bangles and Letters to my Lover charm bracelet as her skirt. Susan is a phenomenal artist who has had her work displayed in the Smithsonian, and she has become a family friend after working with my aunt to publish her book and asking my mom to do much of the photography for it.

I scrawled all over this photo so you can see how the jewlery sits on the holder. The bracelet that makes up her skirt blows my mind.

The piece had nothing to do with our books and buttons theme, but I wasn't about to pass up the opportunity to work this one of a kind piece into our wedding day. At the end of the night, my aunt revealed that the hat on top of the singer was actually a ring custom made for me! I love having that little keepsake from the evening.

I should probably stop drooling over those cakes and show you a few photos of that iconic moment known as the cake cutting. Did you know the cake cutting tradition has root in a small wheat cake that was crumbled over the brides head by the Romans to encourage fertility? I hope it worked.

We cut using an antique silver piece my grandma picked up for us at an antique store. It's quite possible that I am whispering "Careful not to cut the cake topper honey, it's worth several thousand dollars."

My brand new husband looks at me with so much love in his eyes. I look at the cake.

Many couples talk about how they wished they had practiced cutting the cake. Looking back on the pictures I'm left wishing we would have practiced the eating part of this ritual. Having your mouth open as wide as possible is never very attractive. Maybe we should have tried feeding each other one at a time?

After the first bite most couples turn and smile at their family and friends, or shove cake in each others faces, or pose politely for the photographer. Not us. After the first bite I went right back for the second, and as soon as that was finished my thoughts immediately turned to the rest of the cakes sitting across the room. I believe I actually heard the Lemon Coconut calling my name.

Kelli Nicole I hope you put the camera down long enough to get some cake!

Previously:

That Wedding: Bridesmaid Party!
That Wedding: Whole Foods (Rehearsal-ish) Luncheon
That Wedding: Harbor Sailing
That Wedding: Putting My Face On
That Wedding: The Gift Exchange
That Wedding: Dressing The Bride
That Wedding: Bridal Details
That Wedding: The First Look
That Wedding: Into The Woods
That Wedding: Woodsy Family Portraits
That Wedding: To Wed! To Wed!
That Wedding: Showered With Love, Coins, and Hugs
That Wedding: Group Shots With a Little Spice
That Wedding: Those Groomsmen
That Wedding: The Whole Party
That Wedding: Me and My Maids (+ Manmaid)
That Wedding: Ring Ceremony Prep
That Wedding: The Ring Ceremony
That Wedding: Let Us Whet Your Appetite
That Wedding: Photobooth
That Wedding: We Dance
That Wedding: Dining Details
That Wedding: Toasting
That Wedding: Bridesmaid Cake Pull

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

That Wedding: Bridesmaid Cake Pull

Throughout my planning process I kept hearing of this thing called a cake pull. From what I understood it was a Southern wedding tradition, and it happened at the bridal shower. Charms were buried inside of a cake and pulled out by a ribbon, with each charm corresponding to a fortune. I loved this idea, but I wasn't having a bridal shower where all my favorite ladies would be present.

My solution to this dilemma was to incorporate the tradition into the wedding day! Sounds like a great idea right? Well it was in theory, but it didn't quite work out as well as I would have hoped.

Since we had a cake buffet (lots of yummy cake pictures to come!), I simply asked the catering staff to stuff my charms directly into the cake right before the event was to happen. I'm sure they were all standing around in the back talking about the crazy bride (that is the kind of thing I did when I used to cater weddings).

I called each of my bridesmaids forward and told them to pull on a ribbon of their choice.

I held in my hand 8 slips of paper with "fortunes" written on them.

When enough of the cake was wiped off of the charm to be able to see what it was, I handed the corresponding fortune to each girl and had them read it out loud.

Part of me still believes that this could have been really awesome (and as an amateur folklore buff I'm fascinated by the myriad of cultural wedding traditions to be found), but my execution wasn't quite what it should have been. I made up the fortunes myself, since all the fortunes I could find online were really cheesy, but like most of my wedding projects I did it at 3 am the week of the wedding and my fortunes just weren't funny enough.

BM Nay looks at me and says "Mrs. Avocado, why in the world are we doing this?"

I don't know if I intended for the majority of the guests to gather around and watch this unfold, but that's what happened.

BM Lova was married just three months before me, and I was really hoping she would get the fortune about having lots of babies, but that didn't happen.

I bought the charms from Swedenberg's Gold Chest Jewelers on eBay. I wanted something inexpensive because I knew that most of the girls would lose or throw their charms away that night and the whole set of 9 from this seller was only $15.

As with all of my crazy wedding decisions, my bridesmaids were good sports and played along with smiles on their faces. I would be very surprised if I ever saw this practice repeated again, I don't think anyone would rate it a big success.

Fate was smiling upon me at the end of the Cake Pull, when the second youngest bridesmaid pulled the baby in a high chair charm, with a fortune that stated "You will be blessed with children. Lots of them."

To which her mom cried out "Not anytime soon I hope!"

Good thing I have funny relatives who are always ready with a good joke to get everyone laughing. My advice to other brides who have ever considered doing this would be to have the funniest person you know write these out for you.

Kelli Nicole I wish you could have been a bridesmaid in a pretty black dress, but I needed you there to take my pictures!

Previously:

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

That Wedding: Toasting

When I brought up the idea of doing toasts that included flutes of sparkling cider I expected my dad to say "No way." He can be a little bit on the conservative side at times (not like I'm not conservative myself), and although we drink sparkling cider ourselves at holidays sometimes I thought he might say no because of how it would look in the photos. I was pleasantly surprised to find out he was on board with the idea, and it was a good thing because we were well under our catering minimum before this point and I needed a way to beef up menu a little bit.

I'm going to do what 99% of brides do at this point and say that our toasts were awesome. They include the story of how we came to be as related by the best man, some Polish from a real Pole, a little sister tattling on the bride, a teary eyed father, a bride that planned everything except her speech, and an introverted groom ending things on just the right note. But I think I'm getting ahead of myself.

The Best Man's toast was a completely unexpected hit. If you have ever been curious how a farm girl from Washington and a Polish boy from, well, Poland met in the middle of Utah, all you have to do is listen to this speech. This is the point where it was revealed to all of our guests that I was only married at this point because of the "marriage powerpoint" I presented to convince my future husband it was important to try dating.

Best Man Toast from Jenna on Vimeo.

I made sure everyone knew that after I got up the nerve to tell Mr. Avo I wanted to date him, he took 3 weeks to give me an answer!

Was the toast really that funny? Let's look around and see.

Yep, it was absolutely hilarious.

I'm mostly laughing because I came out looking like the smart one after the toast was over. I am the one who decided we should date (and get married!) after all.

FILcado stood up and had everyone laughing, and even did a little speaking in Polish! If you didn't know, people who have never heard Polish before are fascinated by it. It's very common for people to say to Suavacado "Say something to me in Polish."

FYI, don't do that to people. It's always annoying and they don't really have anything to say when you put them on the spot like that.

"Ha ha ha, funny FIL!"

MOH Shay stood up and told everyone I used to beat on her when we were kids. Do I look like the kind of person who would beat on her little sister?

This is the face that says "I'll beat on talk to you later about this little missy."

I admit now that I had a rather selfish reason for wanting do have these toasts; I wanted to have our fathers stand up and say a few words. Papacado's toast wasn't funny like the rest, but it was sweet and sincere. I think my new husband leaned over to me 3 or 4 times throughout and asked "Is this being taped? Are you sure it's being recorded?", because we both knew that it was something we would want to be able to remember and relive.

Thanks dad.

Then it was our turn.

Bride and Groom Toast from Jenna on Vimeo.

My toast was a little bit ho-hum.

Mr. Avocado's however, was really wonderful! He was sincere, thoughtful, articulate and eloquent. I'm supposed to be the extroverted one in the relationship who does well in front of crowds, but now I'm thinking I'm really just the one who likes to talk.

We saw lots of touched expressions like this throughout the room.

The lady you see beaming up at my new husband in this photo deserves a lot of credit for making this all happen. Over a decade ago she received the bio for a Polish boy who wanted to be placed in California for the foreign exchange program. All of the California spots were taken, but she contacted him and asked if he would be interested in being placed with a family in Utah. This kind gesture of hers was the first of many of the events that brought he and I together in the end.

MILcado. The love she feels for her son is so transparent in this photo.

Cake teaser! (And someone please get that hideous dead bouquet off the cake table. Thank you.)

Cheers to us, my darling.

Can you name one wedding day event that isn't sealed with a kiss? I don't think there are any.

Take another picture with your click! click! click! click! camera, Kelli Nicole.

Previously:

Sunday, February 1, 2009

So Hard to Wait for Such Pretty Pictures

As soon as I saw this post on the blog of Ksenija Savic (who might just have a harder name to say than I do!), I commented and asked her if I could repost it here. I loved Anne Ruthmann's post on WB Pro that talked about this very subject (and in fact Ksenija's post was inspired by Anne's post), but Ksenija took things a step further and broke down in hours how long each step of the process takes.

All the words and photos past this point are by Ksenija herself. I hope this helps you understand just a little bit better what it takes to process a wedding.

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why does it take so long to receive my wedding/portrait images?

(Heather & i decided to collaborate on the verbiage for this post!)

while we've been lucky to not have anyone ask this question, at times maybe we wish you would!

we wonder if you might be asking yourself this question, or just plain want to know more about the logistics of it all!

however, just to make it easier, let's use a wedding for the example!
here are the basic steps about the process we fine art photographers go through the minute your session or wedding is over.

step one:
we load all memory cards to the computer in order to properly back up your beloved photos.
then spend what seems to be a NEVER ENDING process,
burning dvd's of these files to make extra sure the images are safe, as well as backing them up to an external hard drive!!
EXAMPLE: 3500 images = 8 - 10 hours (MINIMUM)

step two:
all thousands of images are reviewed (often times up to 4500 images... yes 4500)!!!
one by one, we choose the best of the best images, to help make your life easier.
the idea behind narrowing down images, is to make sure only the most perfect shots are edited and given to you.
we take so many to make sure we can have a grand selection of every moment, as well as duplicates to insure the moment is captured!!!
this process takes hours & hours looking at each individual image, deciding which to keep or not to keep.
EXAMPLE: 2500 images = 2 - 4 hours

step three:
somewhere between 100 - 300 top favorite images are selected and then given the very special artistic effect that is custom by photographer's style and makes your wedding unique and special!!
this is the process that takes the most time, energy & personal touch, as well.
in order to provide you with the beautiful, one of a kind, fine art you invested in, this process most definitely cannot be rushed.
EXAMPLE: 75 images = 10 hours (MINIMUM)

step four :
a blog post is created so that you have a great sneak peek to be able to view, share & enjoy some of the top faves from your day!
everyone does blogging a little differently, however for me, i really LOVE being able to make my blog posts as special & personal as possible because of how much i connect with my clients. i want your first look at your wedding to be moving & memorable.

an average blog post from start to finish takes me on average about 24 hours & up (MINIMUM)!

step five:
color and density is corrected with each and every image. images are cropped if necessary.
because your wedding was shot in a multitude of different lighting situations each image can have different corrections needed.
EXAMPLE: 2500 images = 21 hours (MINIMUM)

step six:
the images are loaded to an online proofing company for viewing, sharing & ordering!
depending on the photographer's system and the on-line company used... this process can take several days.
EXAMPLE: 2500 images = 48 hours (MINIMUM)

...so now you can see it has been a MINIMUM of 117 hours - just to get to this point! this of course doesn't include other weddings & sessions shot, client meetings, daily emails, phone conversations, downloading/backing up, orders made, album designs, etc. that all happen in the 'in between' time either!

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Thanks to Ksenija for letting me repost this! Check out Ksenija's blog for more of her beautiful work. If you have any more questions about the processing of wedding photos, ask them below and I'll ask Ksenija to come over and answer them for you.